Johan Lundgren will step down as CEO of low-cost airline Easyjet by the end of the year. The announcement comes as the company's first-half report falls short of analysts' expectations. 

Johan Lundgren has been CEO of British Easyjet, one of Europe's largest budget airlines, since 2017, but will therefore leave the CEO position early next year, when he will be replaced by the current CFO Kenton Jarvis. 

”Johan will stay with us until the end of the current year, which we hope will be another year of strong success,” says chairman Stephen Hester in a comment.

Kenton Jarvis has been CFO since February 2021 and, like his predecessor Johan Lundgren, has worked at travel giant TUI, among other things.

The aviation sector has gone through tough years during Johan Lundgren's time at Easyjet, not least the pandemic that saw air traffic plummet worldwide. The Swedish CEO was responsible for, among other things, the acquisition of the German airline Air Berlin and investments to renew its own fleet with new Airbus aircraft,

The pressure is also reflected in the share price. Since Johan Lundgren took office, Easyjet's share price has fallen by over 60 percent.

Easyjet's latest quarterly report also shows that pre-tax losses increased by 15 percent year-on-year in the first quarter. However, the outcome was slightly better than expected according to Bloomberg's consensus, and revenues rose by 22 percent year-on-year, which was also above expectations.

The company's forecast of a capacity of 59 million passengers in the second half of the year and around 100 million in total for this year was broadly in line with analysts' expectations.

In the CEO's statement to Thursday's report, Johan Lundgren predicts a record summer for the aviation industry.

”There are still important things to achieve during the rest of the year,” he says in a comment on the resignation announcement. 

Source: DI.SE